GENERAL SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
VOLS. III. AND IV. OF COSMOS.
Special results of Observation in the domain of Cosmical Phenomena.—
Introduction.
Retrospect of the subject. Nature considerea under a two-fold aspect:
in the pure objectivity of external phenomena, and in their inner reflection
in the mind. A significant classification of phenomena leads of itself to
their casual connection.-Completeness in the enumeration of details is
not intended, at least in the representation of the reflected picture of
nature under the influence of the creative power of imagination.-Besides
an actual or external world, there is produced an ideal or an inner world:
filled with physical symbolic myths, different according to race and cli-
mate, bequeathed for centuries to subsequent generations, and clouding a
clear view of nature.-Fundamental imperfectibility of the knowledge of
cosmical phenomena. The discovery of empirical laws, the insight into the
causal connection of phenomena, description of the universe, and theory
of the universe. -How, by means of existing things, a small part of their
genetic history is laid open.-Different phases of the theory of the uni-
verse, attempts to comprehend the order of nature.-Most ancient fun-
damental conception of the Hellenic mind: physiologic phantasies of the
Ionian school, germs of the scientific contemplation of nature. Double
direction of the explanation of natural phenomena, by the assumption of ma-
terial principles (elements), and by processes of rarefaction and condensa-
tion. Centrifugal revolution. Theories of vortices. The Pythagoreans;
philosophy of measure and harmony, commencement of a mathematical
treatment of physical phenomena. -The order and government of the
universe according to the physical works of Aristotle. The communication
of motion considered as the cause of all phenomena; the tendency of the
Aristotelean school but little directed to the opinion of the heterogeneity
of matter. This species of natural philosophy bequeathed in fundamental
ideas and form to the Middle Ages. Roger Bacon, the Mirror of
Nature of Vincentz of Beauvais, Liber Cosmographicus of Albertus